The Wes Cecil Podcast
The Wes Cecil Podcast offers accessible lectures on philosophy and the world of ideas, aimed at providing a foundation for further reading and thought. Host Wes Cecil, who holds a PhD in Literature and Philosophy and has over 20 years of college teaching experience, explores various topics and thinkers to help listeners develop their own understanding. The podcast seeks to remove barriers that prevent many from engaging with the lives and thoughts of great thinkers.
Episodes
Reading The Bhagavad Gita: Books 8, 9 & 10
The Atman, Brahman, and Karma are presented quite clearly in book 8 and the implications are then extrapolated in Nine and Ten. These are the key ideas at the heart of Hinduism. The Atman is a challenge for western audiences because it pre-supposes a very different concept of individuality and what constitutes a self. A powerfully metaphysical argument, it challenges quite directly the critiques o
New Series! An Invitation to Being Human: Ep. 1 - Go Outside
This series is a concrete extrapolation of the ideals of Humanism within the context of our contemporary society. While it might seem like we can’t help but know how to be human, the pressures and structure of our society are powerfully opposed to the expressions of the ideals of Humanism and, de facto, of our human potential.Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON community to get your questions answ
Reading The Bhagavad Gita: Book 7
It sounds a lot like monotheism, and perhaps this is what Krishna is arguing, but it is a conceptual framework very much different than the Christian concept of monotheism (the Jewish people did not have a monotheistic view of the world btw). In Book Seven we get the very different Hindu framing of this question in which there is only one ‘god’, if Vishnu can be conceptualized in that category, in
“How Things Mean” - Live Lecture From Maastricht, The Netherlands - 4.30 26
I want to share the live audio of the 2nd lecture I gave at The University of Maastricht, the Netherlands a month ago. This one is from Thursday, April 30.The focus of this lecture is the deep ontology—the how or why (instead of the what)—of our stories and discourse in the modern world. Here's the write-up for the lecture:We make sense of the world through our values. Unfortunately, we have becom
Reading The Bhagavad Gita: Books 5 & 6
While slightly repetitive, the importance of the idea of holy work and doing as superior to not doing is central to these two books. I spend extra time on the concept of ‘Sin’ and how this is a misleading word to use in translation from the Sanskrit and how Dharma, Karma and Kama are not just about the endless cycle of life but also about how we experience our lives in the moment. Sign-up for 
Values: Ep. 9 - Conclusion
In conclusion, I consider a few of the pitfalls one is likely to encounter if they decide to pursue new values. I also provide a few suggestions for some approaches that might be helpful in beginning the process of adopting a new set of beliefs. Mostly, though, I want to encourage anyone who might be interested in running a values experiment.Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON community to get you
Reading The Bhagavad Gita: Book 4
Krishna reveals the divine wisdom to Arjuna who is thoroughly confused by what Krishna says as you may have been as well. Some deep Hindu theology is working in the background of this passage that is difficult to pick up in translation. Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON community to get your questions answered by Wes! (Yes, Wes is very active on Patreon)Plus, gain access to bonus lectures, peer
Values: Ep. 8 - Money
Money is, as I’ve mentioned, the core value in our societies today. Generally attacked throughout philosophical history, it is currently celebrated as THE value that answereth all other values. However, there might be just one or two very small problems with using money as a value to organize our lives and provide meaning on the way to achieving our goals.Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON community&n
Reading The Bhagavad Gita: Book 3
Krishna introduces a series of key points that will be repeated throughout the rest of the Gita: Action is better than inaction, Sacrifice, and the renunciation of Ends. With these concepts, the Gita weaves key ideas from Buddhism back within the structure of Vedic Hinduism by re-imagining the foundations of the sacrificial economy.Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON community to get your question
Artificial (Intelligence) Mythology - Live Lecture From Maastricht, The Netherlands, 4.29.26
Hello everyone! I want to share the audio of my live lecture from Maastricht, the Netherlands a couple Wednesdays ago, April 29.The lecture is on the phenomenology of AI in the mytho-poetic mind. Hope you enjoy. Here's the write-up:AI, in itself, may not actually be that interesting. However, the way we perceive and respond to the idea of AI marks a central tendency of human civilization, spanning
Values: Ep. 7 - Wisdom
Almost completely forgotten as a value today, it was THE central value of a series of different philosophical systems across several different civilizations over 1,000s of years. Without Wisdom as a value, we have less capacity to develop nobility, joy, or beauty as discussed in earlier episodes. Yet, we still seek to understand ourselves and our world and likely wisdom will never truly go away.Si
Reading The Bhagavad Gita: Book 2
Krishna explains that the soul is immortal and that rebirth is unending so there is no need to worry about killing one’s family as you aren’t really doing anything that matters. Instead, focus on wisdom and duty to achieve one’s dharma and everything else that follows will be right. Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON community to get your questions answered by Wes! (Yes, Wes is very active on Pat
Values: Ep. 6 - Heroism
Unlike the other values discussed, Heroism would seem to be a central value of contemporary society. However, upon closer inspection, it is clear that traditional notions of heroism - of which there are a range - are not all that represented. While the idea of suffering and sacrifice remain, the overall vision of transformation, agency and a transcendent goal seem to largely be ignored. While a pr
Reading The Bhagavad Gita: Book 1
A great opening! “Why, Krishna, should I kill my family and friends?” This question is the ethical question at the center of the work that allows for a complete re-imagining of Hinduism and the spiritual and social contract of ancient India. The layers of background that inform seemingly even simple passages is a bit overwhelming but hopefully this introduction will help out a little. Sign-up for&
Values: Ep. 5 - Joy
Who could be opposed to Joy? Well, it turns out that despite being a central value in several different philosophical systems for 1,000s of years, contemporary society has little use for the cultivation of Joy. A diffuse concept, I focus on providing several literary examples and suggestions for further study and reflection. Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON community to get your questions answe
Short Q & A on "Values" Series
A few questions and my own musings on the latest Values episode about the nature of Nobility as seen through the eyes of T.S. Eliot. Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON community to get your questions answered by Wes! (Yes, Wes is very active on Patreon)Plus, gain access to bonus lectures, peer discussions, additional course materials, and audio diaries from France. Only $2 / month. Hosted o
Values: Ep. 4 - Nobility
Not just a value that is out of fashion, but one that is actively and consistently attacked by our society. The notion of cultivating a noble self governed by humility, self-control, wisdom and uprightness seems both wildly out of fashion and arrogant. However, for millennia, this was a central goal of major philosophical systems. Contemporary culture sees any sense of nobility as a cover for some
Reading The Bhagavad Gita - Intro
In 2 weeks we will begin a new series exploring the Bhagavad Gita as a means of orienting oneself within the vast and fascinating literature and thought of classical Hindu thought. An extraordinary and central text that works on a number of important levels within the larger epic of the Mahabharata while also representing an inflection point in the development of Hindu thought. I wanted to share t
Addendum on "Beauty": Piet Oudolf and Georgia O’Keeffe
A reflection on the power of biography to inspire and help guide us in our pursuit of beauty. These two examples are, at least for me, immensely helpful in shaking off the cultural assumptions and outlooks that try to shape our goals and, hence, decision making. Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON community to get your questions answered by Wes! (Yes, Wes is very active on Patreon)Plus, gain acces
Values: Ep. 3 - Beauty
With Health, Beauty has historically been considered an intrinsic value. However, our contemporary society does not just undervalue beauty, it actively works to prevent beauty from being perceived either as a value or, even more insidiously, as an active evil. By taking a moment and reflecting on our own perception of beauty and looking to cultivate in our environment we can use a sense of persona
Is the US a Democracy?
Not a rhetorical ploy, but an actual question. The strange form of American ‘Democracy’ today raises the very real idea that at some point a lack of competition in elections, the duopoly of the hold on power and the control exerted over the process of elections by un-elected officials produces a system that is functionally no longer really a democracy. Further, and I forgot to mention this in the
Values: Ep. 2 - Health
Often discussed as an ‘implicit’ good, health is nonetheless a relatively low priority in many modern societies. We have both a poor understanding of what constitutes health as well as a strong cultural resistance to pursuing health as a key value in our lives. Any attempt to prioritize health will generally provide a powerful education in the underlying cultural values that shape our lives and, m
The Power of Abstraction
A reflection on our capacity to overwhelm our actual experience of the world with abstract concepts that somehow is often more powerful than even our immediate physical surroundings. I was prompted to these thoughts by recent experiences mowing my lawn and spending time in some very different kitchens.Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON community to get your questions answered by Wes! (Yes, Wes is
Values: Ep. 1 - Introduction
A brief introduction to the field of values and why they matter as a subject of reflection. Fundamentally, we understand the world through our values so reflecting on our values and potentially even changing them gives us the opportunity to dramatically alter our experience of the world. Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON community to get your questions answered by Wes! (Yes, Wes is very ac
Biography
A brief argument in favor of reading biographies as a warmup for a new series that will be coming very soon!Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON community to get your questions answered by Wes! (Yes, Wes is very active on Patreon)Plus, gain access to bonus lectures, peer discussions, additional course materials, and audio diaries from France. Only $2 / month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pr
Commodification vs Financialization
A long footnote to the Late Capitalism series in which I discuss the, at least to me, very important difference between these two concepts. While commodification is still going on, it is really the advent of this new financial world that has come to dominate our world in many quite dangerous ways. Perhaps a long discourse that interests only me.Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON community to get
How to be Wrong and Why!
An invitation to explore the power of being wrong. In a culture that emphasizes the importance of rightness over a whole range of other possible values like harmony, beauty, health, fabulousness, inspiration, and so on, being wrong can be a liberating and enlightening experience. Once one begins being wrong, it lifts a burden of outlook and opens up a whole range of different experiences and orien
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 18 - Conclusion 2 "Us"
While our particular brand of history is unique, people have been living history for a long time. By looking back to some earlier patterns of living that were more health-giving and joy-supporting than the form of life relentlessly promoted to us today, we can gain a few clues as to how we can adapt in the face of our challenges. Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON community to get your questions
Reading Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" - Ep. 16: Conclusion
Nietzsche is not just presenting a series of arguments, he is modelling a very different approach to thinking and understanding our world than we usually encounter. To conclude our read-along, I reflect on the structure of his arguments and how they are as, or even more, important than the actual content. In the end, like a poem, Nietzsche invites us to participate in the creation of our own under
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 17 - Conclusion 1 "Cheerios"
A reflection on the global structure of Late Capitalism encapsulated in Cheerios as an example that can help us understand the nature of the world we inhabit. I also cover the unanswerable question, “Why has 70 years of efficiency and progress made Cheerios so expensive” and the unspeakable word - “Deflation”. Hopefully having these small examples in our minds will help us to address the complexit
Reading Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" - Ep. 15
The final section finds Nietzsche in usual form attacking the notion of ‘levelling’ and ‘universal good’ and ‘Equality’. HIs driving force, following on Will to Power, is the pursuit of individual ideas that suit individuals and hence refute the drive towards universality or assumptions of ‘good’ or ‘true’. Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON community to get your questions answered by Wes! (
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide - Addendum - Keurig
Okay, I couldn’t help myself. Keurig is such a perfect example of how this entire orientation towards the world is destructive of more or less all the greatness and joy in life that I pause here to reflect in greater detail on the specifics of the Keurig case. I also think the example of FitBit and similar devices renting to us the capacity to connect with our bodies - and hence of course alienati
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 16 - Reorientation
As long as we keep the values of Late Capitalism we will be trapped within and reproduce the problems associated with our current system. To reorient ourselves within our world we need to articulate for ourselves a new set of values. Two key elements is to resist the notion of money as a necessary arbiter of all things and to reevaluate our desire for haste. It is in large part our addiction to sp
Reading Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" - Ep. 14 (Will To Power)
I pause for a moment to review the central concept for Nietzsche - the Will to Power - how it differs from the concept of will deployed by Schopenhauer and how it utterly reframes the debate around free-will and determinism (though most people don’t seem to notice). Hopefully, this provides a little more clarity and also suggests why it is both a crucial insight and pretty confusing all the same t
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 15 - Health?
Following on from the Unaskable Question, is the notion of how our health is intimately linked with our physical, emotional and psychological wellbeing. However, the logic of Late Capitalism, which we have been examining largely from the direction of money and economics, functions in precisely the same way when we look at our health. Unfortunately, but predictably, isolating people in stressful en
Reading Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" - Ep. 13
Nietzsche reminds us that pain does not, in fact, correlate with truth. And while these chapters are a little confusing, he repeats his observation that all philosophy is derived from the philosopher’s autobiography - and in this case it is clearly Nietzsche expressing his sense of the world. Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON community to get your questions answered by Wes! (Yes, Wes is very act
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide - Addendum - Elon Musk
Musk's decision to absorb his failed Twitter company into his failing AI company which he is now folding into his cash positive satellite launch company is such a perfect example of Late Capitalism I couldn’t help but comment. Bizarrely, Musk denies he has a car company, or a telecommunications company, or a rocket building company. Why would a successful 19th century industrialist systematically
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 14 - The Unaskable Question
We know money answereth all things and that as long as we get money, keep money, and have more money then everything will be fine . . . of course this is completely and demonstrably wrong, and yet, the power of the Late Capitalist ethos reinforces this idea relentlessly as it prevents any other value from intervening in the process. However, if actually stop and ask - what is the source of my weal
Reading Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" - Ep. 12
We arrive at perhaps the central theme Nietzsche has been building towards - the Will to Power. That life is not trying to survive but rather to thrive is the key argument he makes. He sees this as an extra-moral condition of existence because it is present in all living things - hence Beyond Good and Evil. That life force is motivating and shaping in every moment fundamentally alters the notion o
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 13 - Employment
Unsurprisingly, Late Capitalist outlooks have largely colonized our interactions with jobs. Both the structure of employment and the way we think about jobs has shifted dramatically over the last 40 years. Worse, our general cynicism about our current employment environment is itself a sign of how pervasive late capitalist outlooks have impacted even how we imagine our lives might be.Sign-up for&n
Reading Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" - Ep. 11
Here Nietzsche critiques the whole notion that we ‘live in a simulation’ or that we live in a ‘hologram’ roughly 150 years before those concepts come into existence. In fact, however, he is really working against the Platonic tradition of perfect forms that haunted, and continues to haunt, the western concept of both the world and how we should, as ethical beings, respond to it.Sign-up for We
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 12 - Exiles
The structure of our contemporary societies promotes an increasingly powerful focus on isolated individuals as not just a model, but the model of a quality and ‘successful’ life. As isolated individuals we increasingly struggle to meet our basic needs by interacting with globalized and financialized systems that exploit us. The increase in loneliness, anxiety, suicide, and other mental health prob
Reading Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" - Ep. 10
Nietzsche attacks the central moral document of his time - The Sermon on the Mount! Nietzsche argues in favor of subtlety, nuance, and life-affirmation as opposed to clarity and moral judgement. This is one of the key defining sections that allows us to understand Nietzsche mental make up and core beliefs. Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON to get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide - Addendum - Davos Summit
Just to make it absolutely clear how pervasive and singular the logic of Late Capitalism is, I present a brief reflection on the current events surrounding Greenland, Davos and global financial markets. I rarely comment on topical events, but the logic we have been discussing is so perfectly illustrated in recent statements by global leaders it just seemed to good to pass up without comment.Sign-u
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 11 - Contempt and Scarcity
The emotional sense of contempt for others and the concept of scarcity are relentlessly promoted and reinforced as a NECESSARY corollary to the Late Capitalist worldview. By holding both other people and all possible values in contempt, Late Capitalism undermines alternative outlooks. And the creation of scarcity is necessary for maximum extraction of value from any trade. Together they form a fun
Reading Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" - Ep. 9
Nietzsche reiterates his elitist ideals and focuses on the challenges of communication across one’s cultural assumptions. He points out the difficulties of being both misunderstood and outside even of the possibility of sympathy. All philosophy is autobiography indeed.Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON to get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, pee
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 10 - Four Autopsies
Here are four examples rising from the very personal and small - gift cards - to the national and international difficulties facing governments trying to deal with the rising costs of retirement. The patterns we have been discussing are here exposed in, perhaps, excessive detail. However, I feel it is important to see the many manifestations of this logic before we move on to the larger philosophi
Reading Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" - Ep. 8
Chapter II presents a different direction for Nietzsche to attack contemporary philosophical modes by emphasizing how the obsession with TRUTH has warped the outlook of most philosophers and led them to make dubious arguments but, more importantly for Nietzsche, to play-act as martyrs.Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON to get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, r
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 9 - Governments (Part 2)
Along with the productivity myth, the GDP myth misleads our decision makers and obscures key aspects of our economic reality - there has actually been rather slow GDP growth for decades and much of what has taken place has made the economy worse for citizens rather than better.Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON to get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading l
Reading Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" - Ep. 7
Nietzsche emphasizes the difficulties we will encounter as we attempt to abandon morals and see the world as it is -free from natural laws and order and subject only to the interplay of power. If nothing else, you can’t say we haven’t been warned.Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON to get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions, bonus l
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide - Addendum - Strikes at The Louvre
An example of what it means to think with VALUES as opposed to FINANCE. Not saying the workers are correct, though I agree with them, but that their arguments are coming from an entirely different value set.Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON to get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions, bonus lectures, and Wes’s weekly diaries from F
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 8 - Governments (Part 1)
Democratic governments are globally unpopular and part of the reason is the bind the Late Capitalist logic places them in. Growth and investment GOOD we should do MORE so everything keeps getting BETTER while at the same time having to continuously cut budgets, services, promises and often raise taxes - all unpopular. As of yet, they have not recognized the faultiness of the premises, neither righ
Reading Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" - Ep. 6
So now Nietzsche wants to point out how systematically our cultures and grammar influence our capacity to think philosophically - further undermining the notion of Philosophy as an arbiter of transcendent truth. Then, in chapter 21, he decides to attack cause and effect, number, law, relativity and many other concepts we like to think help us think but which Nietzsche considers just so much mythol
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide - Addendum on Landlords and Tenants
I ran into such a perfect example of financialization - stepping in between landlords and tenants for rent payments - I just had to share. I try to be cynical, but I can’t keep up.Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON to get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions, bonus lectures, and Wes’s weekly diaries from France. Only $2 / month.&nbs
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 7 - Ethics
The elimination of all measures of worth besides price leaves us lost in a world where, with the removal of price, we have no ability to make judgements whatsoever. This is perhaps the single most debilitating impact of Late Capitalism.Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON to get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions, bonus lectures, an
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide - Addendum on Gaming
A response to some comments about Steam and a note on an interesting quote from Andre Gide.Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON to get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions, bonus lectures, and Wes’s weekly diaries from France. Only $2 / month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 6 - Spotify and the Destruction of Culture
Spotify represents a case study in how the logic of Late Capitalism ramifies throughout our lives in ways that destroys fundamental aspects of our culture. Our love of music is leveraged to destroy the ecosystem of music creation and enjoyment. The pattern represented by Spotify is repeated throughout every cultural sphere. Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON to get your questions answered by Wes!
Reading Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" - Ep. 5
So much for Free Will. Herein Nietzsche attacks the whole question of Free Will - not taking a side but simply pointing out the meaninglessness of most of the conversations surrounding free will.Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON to get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions, bonus lectures, and Wes’s weekly diaries from France. Only
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 5 - We Know the Price of Everything, the Value of Nothing - and the Price of Nothing
In an almost Zen Koan kind of way, Late Capitalism increasingly immerses us in a society where we are simultaneously told money is THE most important value but wherein we are no longer able to even determine the price of things. This fundamental rewriting of our assumed economic structure - wherein we can make informed decisions - is eroding the dubious yet pervasive idea that somehow if we get ou
Reading Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" - Ep. 4
Nietzsche rejects Sensualism, Materialism, Metaphysics and any simple understanding of Science with his core concern - an Ethics built on Joy and Vigour derived from a Will to Power that he sees in all life. It is not error he is against, but error that leads to sleepiness. Nietzsche wants a philosophy that wakes us up. Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON to get your questions answered by Wes!Plus
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 4 - The End of History
One of the social impacts of Late Capitalism is the undermining of our sense of history. Expanding on a pre-existing pattern in American culture, which partly explains why the US is at the forefront of financialization, the loss of a historical sense disorients us in an endless, meaningless present. The logic of Late Capitalism consistently works to gather our attention, emphasize the individual,
Reading Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" - Ep. 3
Having attacked most western philosophy, Nietzsche presents one of his core arguments - that all these claims to universal truth and discovery are simply a self-serving pose on the part of philosophers. Understanding his argument fundamentally alters the way we think not just about philosophy, but the construction of our understanding of the world itself. Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON to get
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 3 - The "Logic" of Financialization
The creeping presence of Financialization would not be so upsetting if it weren’t that it represents such an odd/counterintuitive world view. The logic of Late Capitalism is not, for the average person, either intuitive or even really comprehensible. So we are surrounded by systems that operate on alien logic designed, as often as not, to exploit us. Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON to get your
Reading Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" - Ep. 2
Wow, Nietzsche rolls out all the rhetorical cannons to open Beyond Good and Evil. He attempts to undercut both the history and focus of Western philosophy and introduce a new basis of thinking based on a different approach to understanding the human. Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON to get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions, bon
The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q17: The Planet?
The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q17: The Planet?“I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them. The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms – greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge – has
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide, Ep. 2 - Financialization
FinancializationThe creeping intervention of global financial actors into every aspect of our lives is an often overlooked, but profound, aspect of late capitalism. These actors follow a very different logic from that of normal commerce. To appreciate the depths of the penetration of these actors I recommend an experiment where one tries to live for a week spending only cash and avoiding all major
Reading Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" - Ep. 1
This read along series presents one of Nietzsche’s most important and confusing works. Written after Thus Spake Zarathustra, it continues to develop some of his central themes and attempts to reground Ethics in a completely new fashion. Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON to get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions, bonus lectures, a
The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q16: Nihilism?
The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q16: Nihilism?Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. It is often associated with extreme pessimism and a radical skepticism that condemns existence. A true nihilist would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose other than, perhaps, an impulse to destroy. Structuralis
Late Capitalism: A Survival Guide - Ep. 1
The revolution has happened, and we are its victims. If you feel a bit hopeless and disoriented by the world today, this is not just you or some random happenstance. You are being disoriented, and your sense of hope is being systematically undermined by a global economic logic—Late Capitalism—that has come to dominate almost every aspect of our lives. This series is not meant to be anti-commerce o
Reading vs. TV
A reflection on the relative nature of Reading vs TV and the peculiarities of both mediums. Indeed, given how much time we spend engaged in watching various kinds of media, I think it is a bit shocking how little time we spend reflecting on the nature of the media and how it impacts us. Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON to get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials,
The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q15: Truth?
The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q15: Truth?Principia MathematicaThe aim of the book is to set a limit to thought, or rather — not to thought, but to the expression of thoughts: for in order to be able to set a limit to thought, we should have to find both sides of the limit thinkable (i.e. we should have to be able to think what cannot be thought).It will therefore only be in language
Primates In Space: Primates Are Stressed (Conclusion) - Ep. 12
The accumulated gap between our environment and our needs as primates have grown increasingly large over the last 100 years. As a result virtually every measure of health and well being have become shockingly negative. Yet we have little sense of why or what is happening because the systemic issues we face are difficult to identify in the sea of changes we experience in the world since the industr
Narrativium
We continually tell ourselves stories about every aspect of our lives. Taking a little time to reflect on the stories we tell ourselves is often quite revelatory about how our thinking is directed and limited. Likely it is impossible for humans to live without a rich life filled with stories, but the stories are often under our control to a remarkable degree.Image attribution: https://creativecomm
The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q14: What is this science thing?
The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q14: What is this science thing?Now my method, though hard to practice, is easy to explain; and it is this. I propose to establish progressive stages of certainty. The evidence of the sense, helped and guarded by a certain process of correction, I retain. But the mental operation which follows the act of sense I for the most part reject; and instead of i
Primates In Space: Primates Go Wild - Ep. 11
While the industrial revolution is widely recognized as a turning point in human history, less well appreciated is why it has been so influential. Each of the developments were undoubtedly important, however I argue it has been the rate of change that has had a greater impact than any particular change. As primates we are simply incapable of adapting as quickly as we have been presented with chang
Andre Gide and Marcel Proust
Two famous works that critiqued the Moral structure of turn of the century French society did so in entirely different ways. While Gide is more known for his critique, I argue Proust’s critique is far, far more important and powerful. Both authors are worth reading, however, it is Proust who forces us to join him in his reconsideration of whether we are aware of the fact or not.Image attributions:
The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q13: Enlightened?
The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q13: Enlightened?We can see from this that the sovereign power, absolute, sacred and inviolable as it is, does not and cannot exceed the limits of general conventions, and that every man may dispose at will of such goods and liberty as these conventions leave him; so that the Sovereign never has a right to lay more charges on one subject than on another,
Primates In Space: Primates Take Over - Ep. 10
The combination of new crops, new outlooks, new technologies but, most importantly, the expansion of the primate intellectual and imaginative capacities led to the explosive growth in human population that created the world we live in today.Sign-up for Wes’s PATREON to get your questions answered by Wes!Plus, gain access to course materials, reading lists, peer discussions, bonus lecture
The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q12: What was reborn?
The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q12: What was reborn?1374 death of Petrarch 1413 Brunelleschi systematizes perspective 1439 Movable Press 1492 Columbus 1514 More's Utopia and Machiavelli's The Prince 1528 Castiglionie's The Courtier 1543 Copernicus The Revolution of the Heavens No one, it seems to me, can hope to equal Augustine. Who, nowadays, could hope to equa
Primates In Space: Primates Discover The Printing Press- Ep. 9
Despite the general acknowledgement of the importance of the printing press, I argue that why the press had such an impact is largely misunderstood. The printing press was the technology that most powerfully transitioned us from a face to face very personal experience of the world to one in which abstraction, distance, time and imagination slowly came to dominate our experience of the world. Sign-
